Security agents assault journalists in Chad

Armed agents from the National Security
Agency in N'Djamena, the capital, beat two reporters on November 16, 2012, and
detained them in handcuffs on the premises of a private hospital, according to
local journalists.

Moussa Nguedmbaye and Boulga David, both
reporters for the private radio station Dja FM, had gone to the L'Hopital de
l'Amitié Tchad-Chine to verify reports
that the hospital had employed unqualified doctors in the wake of crippling strikes
waged by labor unions demanding that the government respect a 2011 salary agreement
promise, according to Zara Mahamat Yacoub, director of Dja FM.

The security agents kicked and punched the
journalists, confiscated their equipment, and detained them in a police vehicle
in the hospital, Yacoub said. The reporters sustained no severe injuries from
the attack, she said. Yacoub also said that police threatened to beat her and
another Dja FM colleague as they filmed Nguedmbaye and David in custody.

Nguedmbaye and David were released after
two hours and their equipment returned. Yacoub said the journalists would be
filing an official complaint.

Abdoulaye Georges Moyalta, Chad's
Inspector General of Police, told CPJ that the journalists had been "subdued,"
not assaulted. He also said they had neglected to get permission from the
hospital to cover the story.